savetheearth | eleventh feather

Entry tags:

eleventh feather

Who: Rakka and friends (Raye, Robyn, and Jasmine)
Where: Dians house backyard, Locke City
What: Rakka is going to try and fly. This'll end well.
When: Now! (August 17th)
Warnings: Shenanigans

Things were changing in Locke city, but they weren't changing for Rakka. It'd been weeks since her last echo, and she still didn't know how to fly. With all the things happening in Locke, Rakka had been so caught up with other things that her planned attempts at learning to fly, or triggering any echoes that don't involve her falling out of the sky, had been put on hold. The attack the mafia made on her, of all people, earlier in the month didn't make matters any easier for her. On the plus side, she had finally decided to stop hiding her wings and halo at least.

And fortunately, she wasn't going to put off her training any longer. It'd been for too long that Rakka had been unable to do anything with her wings. They were smaller than it would allow for normal flying, but maybe there was a magic echo she needed, she hoped that was the case. The plans had been made, and Rakka had sent out a network post for everyone that she knew wanted to be there, or wanted to help.

She had set up behind the Dians residence, in the small, fenced off area that they called a backyard. She'd covered all her bases at least. There was a trampoline, a ladder, and pillows scattered across the ground in case of imminent wing failure. Rakka was off to the side, waiting for the others to arrive, still strapping on the rocket boots Octavia had made for her.

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Well, it's about time. Raye'd been waiting to see Rakka try those wings out for months now. So no way in Hell was she gonna miss this.

So, she showed up right on time, in jeans, t-shirt and jacket against the oncoming fall weather (Senketsu's riding along in a backpack today) and wandered around to the backyard, whistling lightly at Rakka's setup. Spotting the girl strapping on her boots, she made her way over.

"Damn. You guys've been busy, huh?"

Jasmine? Literally touched down from above, having flown here. She blinked as she saw what Rakka had set up, but unlike Raye, just opted to let out a low whistle.

Robyn's running a little bit late but she eventually makes it to the backyard. She's breathing heavily from the dash she just made to get here. She's got camera in her hand so they can remember the glorious event of today.

"S-sorry I'm la-" She stops herself when she catches sight of all the trampoline and all the pillows. Her eyes go wide with surprise and excitement.

"-This is going to be so cool!"

Rakka looks up and, spotting Raye and Jasmine, smiled. She could already feel a potential echo happening. This one would be important, she knew it.

Finishing her successful battle with the boot straps, Rakka stood up and addressed her gathered friends, now that Robyn had shown up. Excitement shown on her face. She was so ready for this. "I got Isaac and Miria to help me set up. So, if the boots fail I'll land softly."

She beamed happily. "I'm finally going to do it, I'm going to try and fly."

A pause. "....Uh, I hope."

Edited 2014-08-20 03:05 (UTC)

"Hey, all you can do is try," Jasmine replied, flexing her own wing. "So how do we want to do this? Should Raye and I just toss you into the air, or something?"

"Uh, sort of?" She shrugged her shoulders, her wings twitching slightly. "I'm going to try and fly myself, and then we're going to use the rocket boots." She pointed at the red boots with flame decal she wore.

"If I get high enough into the air, maybe I'll finally get the echo I want."

Raye stood by with her hands in her jacket pockets, glancing over when Jasmine touched down and again when Robyn popped up as excited as ever. But that's not what's got her attention right now, because seriously rocket boots.

"Sounds like a plan." She glanced down at Rakka's flame-decaled footwear with a grin. "Best way to do it is just to do it, right?"

There's a zipping sound from over her shoulder and Senketsu's eye popped out, looking down at Rakka's feet then at Raye. She glanced over her shoulder, listening for a moment before rolling her eyes.

"Shut up, it's gonna be cool." She pointed a thumb over her shoulder at the Kamui. "Don't listen to that guy."

"Don't worry Rakka. You've got this! You'll be flying in no time." Robyn said with a confident smile. Rakka has wings and freakin' rocket boots, there's no way this wont work.

Robyn then glanced over to Raye looking completely confused.

"Uh... What guy? What did he even say?"

"Right." There was literally nothing saying that she wasn't going to fly today, or at least get into the air.

The sounds of a zipper drew Rakka's gaze for a moment. She smiled. "Oh yeah, that's Raye's talking super clothes. Uh, only she can hear it though." Rakka shrugged her shoulders. That was normal stuff.

Okay, she's going to do it. Here we go...

...And she's still standing there, looking up at the sky and... stretching or something?

"Yeah, it talks," Jasmine replied, shrugging. "It's a long story."

Jasmine walked over, and moved to take hold of Rakka's shoulder. "The way it works is you have to will yourself upwards. You can't focus on using your wings to provide lift. They're for steering."

She looked over at Raye.

"You ready to do this? We can't throw her up too high..."

Totally normal.

Raye stood by watching Rakka do... something or other. Whatever it was, it didn't seem like it was working very well. Okay, well... tiny wings. Maybe she just needed a jump start or something.

"Okay, going with the tossing." She walked up to Rakka, and followed her gaze upwards. "How high're we talking here? Cause I'm pretty sure me and Jas can get you some pretty good air."

She's just doing her thing, Raye. Until she stops doing it and sighs. "Okay..." She quietly muttered. "Just trying really hard to fly still doesn't work..."

Looks like a jump start would have to be it. She looked back down at Raye. "Uh, not that high." She doesn't want to be in space, guys. "But, I think it has to be high enough that the clouds are close. If nothing happens , I'll turn on my rocket boots and go higher."

The fact that she was doing this at all was a miracle, what with how little she knew about her boots. She has the gist of them though.

Right... Talking clothes. Well that did explain the time Raye was talking to herself in the middle of the park. So she could work with that.

Ruby had the camera at the ready when Rakka made her first attempt to... stretch? Okay that's not working out very well.

"Maybe don't toss her so high right off the bat? Start low and work our up?"

"Yeah..." Rakka nodded in agreement with what Robyn said. "We should try to be careful."

But, yeah, they should start. "Anyway, is everyone ready?"

"Alright," Jasmine said. "On three... one... two... three!"

Even for a superhero of some sort, Jasmine didn't have much of a benchmark for tossing people into the air. Nevertheless, she tried to push Rakka into the air, though how well she did also depended on Raye.

"Whoah, whoah!"

Raye and Senketsu snap into action as the countdown starts. First she raises her hand for Senketsu to shove the glove onto then pull the pin. Blah, blah, flashy transformation just in time for Jasmine to reach three. Senketsu's replaced her street clothes that are now stashed in her backpack... somehow.

At any rate, it's done just in time for three to roll around and she adds her own super strength to Jasmine's to chuck Rakka up into the air.

"Wha-Waaaaah...!"

Despite how much time she spent preparing, Rakka wasn't expecting that much strength. A scream trailed after her as she was suddenly sent straight up, propelled by both Jasmine and Raye's strength. The wind whistled past her as she fumbled with her boots, searching for the right switch as she reached the end of her accent and nearly started to fall. Finally, jets of fire shot out of the boots, leaving Rakka hovering in the sky for a few seconds before she shot upwards once more.

The wait was terrible for her. No echoes yet, at all. But she still flew upward. If this didn't echo back the ability to fly, then nothing would.

She broke through the cloud layer when the familiar feelings of an echo finally came to her. She was so ready for this, to spread her wings and-

Oh. Oh no.

Unfortunately, her boots decided now was the time to be finicky and turn off. Rakka had just enough time to realize what was happening before she fell back through the clouds, going into a panic as she struggled with her rocket boots.

She couldn't fly. She could never fly.

And now she was falling.

Oh shit. OH SHIT. This wasn't good. This wasn't good at all. Rakka wasn't flying.

Jasmine grit her teeth, spread her wing, and rocketed up at her. With a loud "oof", she caught Rakka, her newfound endurance keeping her from being knocked out of the sky by her weight.

Taking a deep breath, Jasmine sighed and began to float down to the ground. "Don't worry... I've got you."

There was no air in Rakka's lungs to scream with, the wind did that for her as she fell towards the earth. At some point she just gave up on the boots and closed her eyes tight, trying to block out everything around her as she fell.

But the horribly landing didn't come, and when she opened her eyes, she found Jasmine there. She latched onto Jasmine, shaking ever so slightly.

"...." Her voice wasn't coming to her. She just couldn't talk.

Shit. Shit. Shit!

It was hard to see from way down on the ground but squinting enough, she could see that Rakka's flight hadn't exactly gone according to plan. And now the girl was tumbling back down through the air.

"Jas!" Jasmine's already in the air when she calls out, and Raye dashes forward, shifting her Kamui back to its dormant form and watching the two of them descend until they're near the ground again. "What happened?"

She was still trembling as Jasmine landed. It was clear on her face that she had just come under quite the shock, a revelation that left her confused and dazed.

She didn't notice Raye at first, only nodding as she was too caught up in her own thoughts and the one word that stood out from everything else. A word that she muttered quietly. It was alien to her, but it felt almost like she'd said it so many times in the past.

"Haibane...?"

"...I have no idea what that is," Jasmine admitted, as she fluttered down to the ground.

She tried to set Rakka down, but didn't move away from her. "Can you stand?"

"I... I think so."

Sincerely, she didn't know, but she was going to try. Shakily, Rakka set herself down and stood up.

It was clear that something happened, even by looking at Rakka's expression. "I got an echo, when I was up there." She admitted, looking down at her boots. "I think... I'm not a angel."

"A wha?"

Raye stops not far from Rakka when she's set back down on solid ground. Something had definitely gone wrong up there but she couldn't figure out what it was. Haibane? What the hell did that mean?

"What're you talkin' about? What happened up there?"

"I... I was flying, with the boots, and I got an echo just when I got through the clouds."

It took her a moment to start explaining, but everything was still clear in her mind, including a new echo.

"I remembered... this other girl with wings. She told me that she wanted to fly... even though the Haibane can't."

"... so... what, your wings are just for show?!" Jasmine asked. "That's really fucking cheap... you're stuck with them and they can't even let you do cool shit?"

... She meant that to sound a lot more poignant than it ended up coming out.

Jas is a master of words, clearly.

Raye frowns at Rakka's story, narrowing her eyes slightly. She knew how much Rakka had been looking forward to being able to fly and now this. It's no fair.

"What the fuck? That's bullshit." Two wordsmiths at work here. Still, he reels it in, looking toward Rakka. "You okay though?"

Both of them were very good at being poignant. Rakka was so lucky to have them here. She did share their sentiments, sufficed to say. It was just so unfair that she wasn't able to fly. And it took her this long to remember that.

She nodded, bowing her head to stare at the ground. She was fine physically, her spirit was crushed though. "Yeah... I guess."

A frown. "All this time, my wings were useless. I'm not a real angel after all."

"... Yeah, well," Jasmine replied, crossing her arms. "At least now you know... before you tried to do it in a more dangerous situation or something..."

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eleventh feather

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Oops. I forgot to track this post.

For shame.

nah, it's cool

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